How to Remove the Category Base from WordPress using Squirrly SEO

In this short tutorial, we are going to show you how to easily remove the category base from WordPress using Squirrly. But first, let’s quickly go over some of the reasons why you may want to do this in the first place.

WordPress has a default feature called Category Base which adds the word category as base prefix to URLs for category pages. Removing the category base completely removes the ‘/category/’ from your permalinks (URLs). 

This can make your category URLs more aesthetically appealing, more intuitive, as well as easier to understand and remember by site visitors.

Example: 

– if the original slug was ‘yoursite.com/category/seo-best-practices’,

– the modified slug (after removing the category base) would be ‘yoursite.com/seo-best-practices’.

^^ as you can see, the modified link in the example above is now shorter and looks cleaner while still including the keywords which are important for SEO.

The method we present in this article also works for removing the category base (/product-category/) from all product categories (for WooCommerce websites).

How to Access the No Category Base feature in Squirrly SEO

Accessing the No Category Base feature in Squirrly SEO requires the Squirrly SEO – Advanced Pack plugin (the plugin gets installed/activated automatically and doesn’t cost you anything extra)

Here’s what you need to do:

1️⃣ Go to Squirrly SEO > SEO Configuration > No Categories

2️⃣ Clicking on No Categories will open the following panel. All you have to do is click on the Install/Activate Squirrly SEO – Advanced Pack button shown below.

3️⃣ And that’s it! The plugin is now active for your website, and you will be able to see it in your list of Plugins.

Note! The Squirrly SEO – Advanced Pack plugin is also required for other Squirrly SEO features, such as the Advanced Redirects Module.

If you’ve already installed/activated it for your site, you will be able to access the No Category Base feature directly via Squirrly SEO > SEO Configuration > No Categories.

Settings in No Category Base

This section includes settings to remove the category base from all post categories and product categories (if applicable).

!! These settings will only affect POST categories and PRODUCT categories (for WooCommerce).

Switching the toggle LEFT and clicking on Save Settings will reverse the settings.

Be careful when using this option, though, as deciding to reverse it after a while will result in pesky 404 errors, and you would need to manually create redirects to avoid that. Depending on the number of categories you have, this can be a time-consuming hurdle, which is why we recommend letting this option ACTIVE once you’ve enabled it for your site.

Also note that the settings you make here will only be ACTIVE as long as the Squirrly SEO – Advanced Pack plugin is active on your site.

Best Practice

If you modify the permalinks of your site, make sure you redirect the old URLs to your new ones. This way, you can make sure that visitors landing on the old category page will not run into an error or have a bad experience on your site.

Notes!

✅ Once you install it on your site, you will be able to see the Squirrly SEO – Advanced Pack plugin in your list of installed plugins. In case a new version will be available, a notification will appear in this section and you will be able to update to the latest version.

! If you deactivate or delete the Squirrly SEO – Advanced Pack plugin, the settings you’ve enabled using the No Category Base feature will no longer be active for your site.